I agree that MLB, Selig, the Giants and especially Tony LaRussa and the A's have some culpability here.  They should be hauled into court and forced to testify as well.  Let's see clubhouse attendants, ball boys, medical staff, etc. under oath.  That will be the only way to wash away this taint.  Perhaps baseball is leading up to this since they see no way out.  The former Mets clubbie is going to court soon and he plans to name names.  So maybe baseball has decided that they will fall partially on their sword in the 11th hour (to mix a metaphor or three).

It does seem as if the evidence to turn this case must have come from the Giants.  The timing seems to make sense.

But the point I come back to again and again is why people see steroids as such a sin and disregard all of the other performance enhancers used throughout the years?  I've said it before and I'll say it again, greenies did more to taint baseball than steroids ever could.  The teams provided them to athletes!  Their use was uncovered in the early Seventies, and yet they were not tested for until the last couple of years.  Players would take them by the handful.  Coffee marked "Leaded" was loaded with amphetamines.  Everyone - EVERYONE - reporters, players, managers, GMs, ball boys, fans, - EVERYONE - has known this for years, and nothing is made of it.  It is as if speed is a cute little drug that barely helps cure a hangover.  They are just as performance enhancing (if not more) than steroids and they cause long term health problems as well. And most of your famous, beloved and respected players used them.  Some have even admitted to using them.  And still no asterisks, no banning from Baseball, no rejection from the HOF.  Wow.  What is it about steroids that make them a great big monster?

This is not absolve Bonds.  I think it is correct that he should be persecuted on perjury and obstruction since it was basically his willingness to smugly lie to the Grand Jury that is being punished.  I think all of baseball should do a Mea Culpa about ALL past tolerance for drug use and move forward with very agressive, IOC style drug testing.

"Holy Cow!"

The whole thing stinks regardless of what side of the Barry Fence you sit on, or the steroid issue as a whole. Yeah, maybe karma finally caught up to Bonds, be it the "cheating" or just for being a pampered, pompous prima-donna.

Truth is, I disliked Bonds the Giant more than any other reason. He was a pawn in this sordid mess, and until he accused the Giants of "firing" him, I actually believed he knew he was a pawn (or maybe that was just Barry pretending to be naive or stupid or both).

The Home Run Chase of '98 ate at Barry Bonds. It ate at Barry, the ballplayer. It ate at Barry, the black athlete. It ate at him when baseball didn't exactly embrace him the way they did McGwire. Why did Mac and Sammy get the glory, while Barry got the equivalent of sloppy seconds?

Yes Barry played with matches and got burned.  And he was defiant in declaring his innocence.

But Barry also got played. First by the Giants. And then by baseball, period. Really, is anyone surprised by the timing of it all?

And then there's Mac. Wait, where is Mac?  The skinny kid who hit 49 homeruns in his first season, the man who 11 years later "saved baseball". The man who didn't want to talk about the past and whose Hall of Fame chances are now a thing of the past.

Why? Because the people who vote for such things suddenly became experts on moral standards? The same people who lauded his efforts on the field dismissed all that for one "suicidal" statement before Congress in 2005.

Gee, if he had only come clean.

Yeah, because that worked so well for Pete Rose.

The powers-that-be are the guilty ones here. The ones that said let Gaylord Perry and his spitter in the Hall, but kept that blasted asterisk next to Roger Maris' home run record (until removing it, naturally, after Maris had died).

Steroids were an issue long before Barry, before the '98 chase, even before the Fenway Faithful shouted "Ster-oids, ster-oids!" at Canseco during ten years earlier.

But it wasn't until Barry that baseball cared.  (And even then it waited to squeeze every ounce of blood out of that turnip to "really" care).

I am not a Barry Bonds fan. But I am a baseball fan. I am a fan of the performers on the field. I am a fan of their talent, yes even the ones I don't personally care for. I am not naive. I know that my game is no more a clean game than the one my dad watched. I do not care or worry about Barry's legacy (or A-Rod's or whomever) because a baseball player's legacy isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. There will always be something for baseball to overcome.

Art, they say, emulates life.

I do not worry about baseball's survival. Baseball always survives.

Even dark days like today. And, make no mistake, a true baseball fan, even the worst kind of Barry antagonist, recognizes that today is a dark day.

But baseball will survive. Not because of Selig, the feds, or Peter Gammons. Not because it's a grand ol' game of high moral fiber. Or even because it should be. Baseball will survive for the same reasons it always has: the players.

And the fans who watch them.

have to do with a four-year old federal investigation?  Nico, I think you're either confused or your conspiracyometer is reading high.

Baseball gambled with the integrity of the game by looking the other way on PEDs, for years.  

Homers were putting fannies in seats and big bucks in coffers, which was more important to these titans of commerce than whether the hitters were cheating to achieve those results.  It was easier than juicing the ball, or moving the fences in, and it had precisely the same effect.  And better yet, the guilty players could be blamed later.  

It's a sad commentary, and it troubles me to see posts saying the problem is overblown, old news, trivial, etc.  That means MLB's cynical gamble with the health of the game and the health of the players has paid-off, and handsomely.

And that sucks.  Then again, I guess we ultimately get The National Pastime we deserve.    

Even if MLB was using Barry, Barry was using MLB just as much.  He made a crapload of money over these years, which would have been difficult if he was sitting in jail.

It's pretty obvious, from several factors, to realize that Bonds used steroids.  But his indictment was for perjury.  So the issue of usage is moot.  Greenies, HGH, coverups in the lockerrooms... all those things are irrelevant here.

Going in, Bonds knew that lying was a serious crime.  He's being indicted for lying.  I'm sure it used to be "no big deal" to lie to the Grand Jury, so the punishments went up and up until it did become a "big deal".  That's how these things work.  So now you have the "elements" of news:  possible 30 years behind bars for the MLB HR king.  Let 'er rip!

Ask anyone who's a lawyer:  the wheels grind slowly.  The Grand Jury no doubt moved slowly.  Now comes the indictment, but I wouldn't put too much effort into figuring out the timing.  When the work is done, the indictment comes out.  But not before the work is done.

People get indicted for perjury all the time.  It simply doesn't get covered by the media, unless it's a media person.  Simple as that.

What if the newspapers printed the truth every day? Then you'd see "33,000 Deaths Today Due to Poverty" every day, as the headline.  That's a lot of dead people!  But people would stop reading newspapers too!

that Greenies and locker room culture have something to do with this.  An organization that allows some grey area activities in its locker rooms creates a fertile ground for cheating.  If athletes take amphetamines to perform on the field and then get drunk or take other drugs to come down while their own managers, coaches, trainers, GMs and owners all turn a blind eye, for 30 or 40 years, well I think there is a chance that some conspiracy of silence existed among the same power structure regarding steroids.  They made almost no efforts to clean up the game after the Pittsburgh drug trials, fer cryin' out loud.  The system bears some responsibility.

I can see why Bonds thought he could lie and get away with it because he had been allowed to do just that his entire life.  I am not saying he isn't wrong or that it was a good idea to lie, but his arrogance has been nurtured by the culture of cheating in baseball. Most ballplayers believe, "if you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'." With the money involved, I understand this to a certain extent.  So I have been putting my money where my mouth is.  The last few years I have gone from attending 20 - 30 games a season to 2 or 3.  I won't buy the online video or audio packages, I won't subscribe to ESPN, I don't buy souveniers or concessions at the games.  Like the song says, I have one foot on the platform, the other on the train.  And the train ain't going to New Orleans, but rather out of sportsfandom and back into the harsh reality of life. <\pitiful poetic allusion>

Perhaps I am just cynical, but I think baseball and the Giants served up something in the last couple of weeks that is compelling enough to finally put Bonds in the wheels of the justice system. I feel pretty ambilivant about the whole thing because I think the cheating was - and is - so widespread that it is impossible to stop.  For the first time in my baseball/A's fandom (about 25 years worth), I am not excited about next season for just these reasons.  The game is too tainted.  Sports in general have become ridiculous.  Little League championships are televised putting pressure on kids to cheat.  It is all too much, and Bonds indictment is merely the  symptom of a system gone very wrong.